What do Meg Whitman and Kevin Shelly have in common -- allegedly? Let's ask the New York Times.
"The New York Times reports
that Whitman was accused of pushing an employee at
EBay in 2007,
according to two former EBay employees.
"The employee, Young Mi Kim, was preparing Ms. Whitman
for a news
media interview that day. Ms. Kim, who was not injured
in the incident,
hired a lawyer and threatened a lawsuit, but the dispute
was resolved
under the supervision of a private mediator. Two of
the former employees
said the company paid a six-figure financial settlement to Ms. Kim,
which one of them characterized as 'around $200,000.' ”
"An agreement to keep the matter confidential was also
part of the
settlement, and the authorities were not involved.
Ms. Whitman was
counseled in the matter, the former EBay employees
said, by the
company’s human resources lawyers and by Henry Gomez, then
president of
the Skype unit at EBay and now a senior advisor to
Whitman’s campaign.
"The Whitman campaign issued a statement to the Times
saying, "In any
high-pressure working environment, tensions can surface.
Young Mi and I
had a professional disagreement, which we put behind
us. She and I
continued to work together at EBay, where I valued
her skilled counsel
and thorough professionalism.”
To make herself feel better, Whitman wrote herself another $20 million check.
Ken McLaughlin reports, "The
contribution, reported Monday on the California secretary
of state's
website, brings her total self-contributions to $91 million, $17 million
short of the record amount a wealthy candidate has
put into his or her
own campaign.
"That record was set last year by New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, a multibillionaire businessman,
in his successful
re-election bid."
Today is the constitutional deadline for the Legislature
to pass a budget. While lawmakers appear nowhere close
to passing a spending plan today, they did meet with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday to talk about it.
Shane Goldmacher reports, "Schwarzenegger called Monday’s meeting, according to Senate GOP
leader Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta).
“It was a good opportunity for us to lay down the groundwork,”
Hollingsworth said. Asked how June 15 –- the constitutional deadline for
a budget to be passed by the Legislature –- was looking, he retorted,
“Like tomorrow.”
"Hollingsworth blamed yet another late budget on the
Legislature’s
“pretty strong resistance to dealing with reality.” The state faces an
estimated $19.1-billion deficit, after trimming billions of dollars
from
state spending last year and temporarily raising some
taxes.
"The unannounced “Big Five” meeting was the first of the 2010 budget
season and came as lawmakers have shown little progress
in bridging the
gap between three competing spending plans proposed
by Schwarzenegger,
Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro
Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). Republican lawmakers have offered
no detailed road map for how to balance the state’s books."
Don't count Mike Villines out just yet. Jim Sanders
reports the GOP insurance commissioner candidate is
closing on upstart Brian FitzGerald.
Villines now trails FitzGerald by just 5,000 votes with thousands of provisional and late absentee
ballots yet to count.
Maeve Reston looks at the reasons many Tea Party candidates did not fare well in California.
"Coming into this year's primaries, the tea party movement
was
certainly the loudest exemplar of a restive electorate
across the
country. And it was successful in places, helping to
elect Senate
candidate Scott Brown in Massachusetts and nominate
Rand Paul in
Kentucky. But its efforts in California fell short.
"Their biggest
race was the Senate contest, which underscored the
challenges that a
nebulous movement faces in trying to organize foot
soldiers in a state
as large and expensive as California.
"One of Tuesday's hard
lessons was that all the volunteer efforts for DeVore
"didn't matter
nearly as much as having a beautiful commercial on
TV," said Dawn
Wildman, the California state coordinator for the Tea
Party Patriots,
who holds weekly strategy sessions with other organizers.
The former CalPERS board member named in an influence peddling suit has been driven to bankruptcy by gambling debts. Marc
Lifsher reports, "Alfred R. Villalobos, the former
board member of California's giant
public pension fund who has been named in a state influence-peddling
lawsuit, has filed for bankruptcy protection, citing
almost $5 million
in debts to Nevada casinos.
"It was the second personal bankruptcy in 28 years for the Nevada
businessman who was deputy mayor of Los Angeles for
five months in 1993
and a board member of the California Public Employees'
Retirement System
from 1993 to 1995."
And finally from our Hold THe Mayo FIles, "Police in Idaho think they might
have solved a yearlong condiment
crime spree.
Authorities said a 74-year-old Boise woman arrested after pouring mayonnaise in the Ada
County library's book drop box is a person of interest
in at least 10
other condiment-related crimes.
"Joy L. Cassidy was picked up Sunday at the library, moments after
police say she pulled through the outside drive-through and dumped a jar
of mayo in the box designated for reading materials.
"Cassidy
was released from jail
and faces a misdemeanor
charge of malicious injury to property."
